Advertising signs are used throughout any number of various stores. Such advertising signs attract attention and inform customer's as to the availability of certain products/services in the store and, in many instances, to current sale prices for particular products/services. Signs are also used to direct customer's attention to the location of various products in the store.
The location of such in-store advertising is of paramount importance in initially grasping and attracting customer's attention to the advertised products/services offered in a particular store. Accordingly, advertisers continually strive to optimize the location of their advertising within the store. Moreover, advertisers are often prepared to spend and do, in fact, spend considerable extra money simply to improve the location of their advertising within a store. As with real estate, “location, location, location” is the number one rule in advertising. In this regard, the best possible advertising location in a store is at store level and proximate to the entry and egress location to the store. By locating an advertising sign in proximity to the entry door to the store, everyone entering and leaving the store must pass products/services being advertised.
Although having many advantages, arranging an adverting sign at store level proximate to the entry and exit door to a store is fraught with challenges and significant problems. First, arranging an advertising sign at store level and proximate to an entrance to the store naturally exposes the sign to atmospheric conditions, such as rain, snow, sleet, the damaging effects of sun exposure, and wind. As such, and when the sign extends to the floor, some signs tend to absorb and wick moisture on the floor. Such absorption and “wicking” of moisture can quickly deteriorate and, ultimately, ruin a sign. Second, arranging a sign at store level and proximate to the store entrance requires the sign to be secured in place or to have sufficient weight to prevent the sign from shifting and/or moving as a result of wind gusts blowing through the store entrance. As will be appreciated, securing the advertising sign to the floor and/or adding weight to the sign also adds to the overall costs of the sign. Of course, if the advertising signs inadvertently moves in response to wind gusts and the like blowing through the entrance, such signs can present a problem of hindering access to the store. Access to and through the entryway to a store is an especially important concern when considering handicap access to the store.
The problems associated with providing advertising in proximate relation to the store entry/exit location is exacerbated by the presence of entrance/exit security systems necessarily arranged in proximate relation to the entrance to almost every store. Given the choice between advertising and security against theft and the like, almost every store has opted for security. As is known, and albeit aesthetically unsightly, such security systems typically include a pair of five to six foot high security columns or towers arranged immediately adjacent and on opposed inner sides of a store entrance. Typically, security systems include a detection apparatus which, in one form, utilizes an infrared beam or other suitable signal, directed between and from one security tower to the other. Store owners prefer to remove the advertising from being arranged even in proximity to such security towers in view of concerns that such signs could be inadvertently moved as a result of wing gusts, inadvertent kicking or otherwise, thereby resulting in such signs blocking the signal directed between such security towers.
Thus, there is a continuing need and desire for an advertising sign which can be located adjacent to the store entrance whereby maximizing exposure of the product/services advertised while alleviating concerns over weather related deterioration, access to and through the entryway, and which serve in conjunction with existing security devices disposed proximate to the doorway.